Jon Stewart vs. Bill Kristol Transcript

Great interview on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Rough transcript follows…

Jon: So you don’t believe in a public option, so even though that’s good enough for the military it’s not good enough for the people of America?

Kristol: Well, the military has a different health care system then the rest of Americans-

Jon: It’s a public system no?

Kristol: Yeah, they don’t have an option, they’re all in military health care.

Jon: Well, why don’t we go with that then?

Kristol: I don’t know. Is military health care really what you want…well, first of all it’s expensive- I think they deserve it, the military, I’m not sure-

Jon: But the American Public do not?

(slight laughter in the audience)

Kristol: No, the American public do not deserve the same quality health care as soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve, and they need all kinds of things that the rest of us don’t need.

Jon: Well, no, they can have the level of care, but are you saying that the public shouldn’t have access to the same quality of health care that we give to our better citizens?

Kristol: Yes. To our soldiers? Absolutely.

(Booing in the audience)

Kristol: The American public-

Jon: (incredulous) Really?

Kristol: I think, one thing, if you become a soldier…

(crosstalk)

They get paid less. They get paid less, so one of the ways we make it up to the soldiers is we, since they’re risking their lives, is give them first class health care. The rest of us can go out and buy insurance- as 90 percent of us have…

Jon: You just said, Bill Kristol just said-

Kristol: I feel like you’ve trapped me somehow.

Jon: You just said that the government can run a first class health care system. And that a government run health care system is better (audience applause) than the private health care system.

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12 Responses to “Jon Stewart vs. Bill Kristol Transcript”

Military health care is an embarassment to our service men and women, and those I know who have it who need anything but the most basic of care do their best to get into the private system for their needs.

The follow-on care we have for wounded vets continues to be embarassing past initial trauma triage.

The fact that Kristol bought into this as a premise for a debate further illustrates he’s not exactly our best or birghtest.

Too bad for Jon and the rest of the liberals that the TRICARE Management Activity, the military entity that manages military health care, contracts out the actual health care insurance to the private sector. In other words, the military manages the health care, but private insurance companies provide the coverage — not the government. To compare the so-called “public option” to military health insurance is to compare apples to oranges.

Using your extremely narrow view of a public run entity, the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit is actually a private program- even though it was created and funded by Congress and the President, and our tax dollars pay for it. Since a private firm actually dispenses the pills, you would claim that it is a private program.

No matter what words you try to parse, the fact is that the military health care system is a GOVERNMENT program, despite the fact that the end user (troops) might utilize a private business.

And yes, I understand the point that you’re getting at… But I’m also smart enough to know that a 100% publicly run industry (such as the IRS) is not a private industry- even if the tax collectors are occasionally hired by outside temp firms.

Many government administered programs are still 100% government (and work wonderfully) even when private businesses are contracted out for the provision of services.

Another example – are school lunches a government or a private program? Using your definition, they are private (since many county schools contract their own food service to a private company).

Gray: “Using your extremely narrow view of a public run entity, the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit is actually a private program- even though it was created and funded by Congress and the President, and our tax dollars pay for it. Since a private firm actually dispenses the pills, you would claim that it is a private program.”

Try not to confuse things as Jon has. If you must parse the difference between “system” and “insurance,” it’s simple:

Military Health System = Public
Military Health Insurance = Private
Public Option Health System = Public
Public Option Health Insurance = Public

Gray: “No matter what words you try to parse, the fact is that the military health care system is a GOVERNMENT program, despite the fact that the end user (troops) might utilize a private business.”

It is you parsing words here. The point is that the military health system which uses private health insurance is not comparable in any way to the public health insurance option being toted by liberals. Apples and oranges.

Yes, he is. He even said “public option.” How much more clear can it be?

Again, US military health insurance is run by the private sector whereas the “public option” health insurance would be run by the government.

I would argue that it is the private sector part of the private-public mix that makes the military health care successful. The “public option” will have no such mix as it is public all the way. And, that’s why it is disingenuous to act if the two are the same and can be compared equally.

I’m not going to continue to repeat myself here. If you don’t understand the difference at this point, I doubt you ever will. Ideology tends to blind some people from the facts.